The present invention relates to electrical connector arrangements in general, and more particularly to a double plug and socket connector with a short-circuit bridge.
There are already known various electrical connector arrangements, among them double connectors of the plug and socket type. A connector of the latter type may include a plug component having a housing made of an electrically insulating material and two metallic connecting elements arranged in the plug component housing, and a socket component also having a housing made of an electrically insulating material and two metallic contacts arranged in the plug component housing. Then, a resilient short-circuit bridge associated with the connecting elements may be further provided in the plug component housing, and the socket component housing may be provided with insulating material lugs which resiliently move the spring out of contact with the connecting elements as the two components approach their fully assembled position. The connecting elements of the plug component may extend a larger distance beyond the spring than the insulating material lugs extend beyond the contacts.
A double plug and socket connector arrangement of this type is disclosed, for instance, in the German utility model DE-GM No. 7 911 166, in an implementation involving a testing terminal with an associated separating plug. As a result of the above-mentioned construction, making a faulty contact is effectively avoided in such a plug-in connector, due to the provision of the short-circuit bridge. Double plug and socket connectors of this kind are being used, for example, in situations where it must be assured at each instant of time that an electrical secondary current circuit is open, inasmuch as dangerous voltages may otherwise occur.
In this connection, there may be contemplated, for instance, a situation where a testing instrument is to be included into such secondary current circuit, or a situation where a current measuring device fed by a current transducer is to be taken out of circuit or exchanged. Owing to the above-mentioned construction of the plug and socket connector, the secondary current circuit of the plug component is closed through the short-circuit bridge at first, when the socket component is not yet inserted into or otherwise assembled with the plug component.
Then, as the socket and plug components are being assembled with one another, there is initially available an assembling movement distance or a time period, during which the connecting elements of the plug component already contact the contacts of the socket component, while the short-circuit bridge in the plug component is still simultaneously effective. The short-circuiting effect of the short-circuit bridge is then eliminated only during a further phase of the assembly of the plug and socket components as they approach their fully assembled position, in that the insulating material lugs of the socket component resiliently move the resilient short-circuit bridge away from the connecting elements of the plug components.
In the known construction mentioned above, the short-circuit bridge consists of a spring element of a complicated configuration and construction which acts on the mutually parallel outwardly facing surfaces of the respective contact elements from the outside. Because of the complexity of construction and configuration of the spring element, a very complicated mounting operation is required for the positional fixation of the spring element in the insulating material housing of the plug component.